Note Searcher

Helps manage your knowledge base of text files, such as a zettelkasten. Works with a flat or hierarchical file structure. Very similar to Foam! Foam is much more popular and well supported. Why does this extension exist? Foam wasn't around when I started this extension, and has some key differences that keep me using this extension.

Key differences to Foam:

• includes full text search
• wiki link aliases are backwards: [[like this | some_filename]]

Some nice Foam features not in this extension:

• update links on file rename
• graph visualisation (I've never found this to be useful)

Feature summary

• Full text search
• Quick-create notes
• Link and tag autocompletion
• Copy markdown/wiki link to note from search results, file explorer
• Copy markdown/wiki link to note from editor tab
• Wiki link highlighting and navigation
• Shows links to and from current note in sidebar
• Shows dead links in sidebar
• Shows all tags in sidebar

How to use this extension

Install and enable it in your workspace. I don't recommend enabling everywhere, as it will try to index every folder, which can take a long time if there are a lot of files.

Full text search

This extension indexes all .md, .txt and .log files in the currently open folder.

You can search for files by pressing ctrl+alt+s. Some example queries:

apple banana +carrot  # file contains the word carrot, and possibly apple or banana
apple banana -carrot  # file does not contain carrot, but either apple and/or banana
apple banana #food    # file contains apple, banana, and/or the tag #food

Tags

Any word starting with a '#' character is considered a tag, allowing for tag-based searching. #hyphenated-tags are supported.

Typing '#' will suggest auto-complete options based on existing tags.

All existing tags are shown in the sidebar, as per the screenshot.

Creating notes

Press ctrl+alt+n to create a new note in the same directory as the currently open note.

Linking notes

You can add links to other notes using wiki-style links, like [[this]] or with a label first: [[some description | filename]]. If multiple files with the same name exist, vscode will prompt for which note to navigate to.

Markdown links are also supported, eg. [](https://github.com/uozuAho/note_searcher/blob/HEAD/path/relative/to/file).

You can copy a markdown or wiki link to a search result by right-clicking on the search result. You can also copy this link from the explorer and editor tabs.

Links within code blocks are ignored:

#like this one: [[yo]]

Find dead links

Links to files that can't be found are shown in the dead links section of the sidebar.

Reporting bugs/issues/feature requests

If you find any problems, have any questions, or have any requests for features, please create an issue at https://github.com/uozuAho/note_searcher/issues